Systems and methods for managing web content

ABSTRACT

Systems, methods, and media for managing web content. Exemplary methods may include the steps of providing a web content management application via a web site, generating a web marketing campaign from at least a portion of a global marketing framework via a web server, gathering via the web server marketing data from at least one of the web server associated with the web marketing campaign and consumer devices accessing the web marketing campaign, the marketing data including information indicative of interests of consumers, storing the marketing data in a database, associating consumers together according to at least one common interest to create one or more consumer groups, and providing the one or more consumer groups to at least one marketing content author.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This nonprovisional patent application is a continuation application ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/742,689, filed on Jan. 14, 2020, nowgranted U.S.Pat. No. 11,301,874, issued on Apr. 12, 2022, titled“SYSTEMS, AND METHODS FOR MANAGING WEB CONTENT AND FACILITATING DATAEXCHANGE,” which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/016,989 filed on Jan. 29, 2011, now granted U.S. Pat. No. 10,657,540,issued on May 19, 2020, titled “SYSTEMS, METHODS, AND MEDIA FOR WEBCONTENT MANAGEMENT,” all of which are hereby incorporated herein byreference in their entirety including all references cited therein. Thisnonprovisional patent application is also related to U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/016,988 filed on Jan. 29, 2011, now granted U.S.Pat. No. 9,547,626, issued on Jan. 17, 2017, titled “SYSTEMS, METHODS,AND MEDIA FOR MANAGING AMBIENT ADAPTABILITY OF WEB APPLICATIONS AND WEBSERVICES,” which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in itsentirety including all references cited therein.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present technology relates generally to web content management, andmore specifically, but not by way of limitation, to systems, methods,and media for web content management.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Generally speaking, the content of a website may be composed bygathering a mix of content such as textual, image, video, hyperlinks,and applications—just to name a few. These various types of content maybe gathered from a variety of sources and from many different thirdparty software tools, such as web design programs. Web content that iscreated specifically for distribution through web sources, such as awebsite, may be created in utilizing, for example, a content managerexplorer (CME).

Content authors may desire access to information related to the designof web content stored in other systems (e.g., the third party software)that they desire to make use of in the CME. Such an integration of thirdparty software would require specific integrations of the third partysoftware into the main CME and in some cases the core software used byend users to create, manage and publish web content to websites, alsoknown as “CM.” Unfortunately, these types of integrations may restrictthe number and level of integrations possible.

Moreover, most websites are comprised of a patchwork of functionalitiescreated directly for the website. These functionalities may be includedin a web application that is utilized to operate the website.Additionally, the functionalities may be derived from third partysources (internal and external). These third party sources may providetheir own code (e.g., tag libraries or application programminginterfaces) that must be run in the same environment in which they werecreated in order for the functionality to be completely rendered by theweb application. If the third party sources are not run in the sameenvironment in which they were created, the functionalities may notoperate correctly within the web page. One alternative to thisrequirement is for the CME to allow the use of client side renderingthrough at least one of hypertext markup language HTML iframe elementsand web services through AJAX or JavaScript integrations that may renderportions of the web page once the web service data is returned by theweb application. Unfortunately, these integration methods may make itdifficult to clearly separate web services code from the actual webcontent. Moreover, web services that utilize, for example, .NETfunctionalities, may not be able to effectively render third partyfunctionalities from other sources.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to some embodiments, the present invention is directed tomethods for managing web content that include: (a) providing a webcontent management application via a web site, the web contentmanagement application coupled to a web server associated with the website, the web content management application adapted to maintain aglobal marketing framework indicative of a marketing campaign; (b)generating a web marketing campaign from at least a portion of theglobal marketing framework via the web server; (c) gathering, via theweb server, marketing data from at least one of the web serversassociated with the web marketing campaign and consumer devicesaccessing the web marketing campaign, the marketing data includinginformation indicative of interests of consumers; (d) storing themarketing data in a database; (e) associating consumers togetheraccording to at least one common interest to create one or more consumergroups; and (f) providing the one or more consumer groups to at leastone marketing content author.

In other embodiments, the present invention is directed to systems formanaging web content that include: (a) a web site having a web contentmanagement application associated therewith, the web content managementapplication coupled to a web server associated with the web site, theweb content management application adapted to maintain a globalmarketing framework indicative of a marketing campaign, the web contentmanagement application including computer-readable instructionscomprising: (1) a content manager module adapted to: (i) maintain aglobal marketing framework indicative of a marketing campaign; and (ii)generate a web marketing campaign from at least a portion of the globalmarketing framework via the web server; and (2) a visitor intelligencemodule adapted to: (i) gather, via the web server, marketing data from aplurality of consumer devices accessing the web marketing campaign, eachof the consumer devices being associated with a consumer, the marketingdata including information indicative of interests of consumers; and(ii) group consumers together according to at least one common interestto create one or more consumer groups; (3) a content porter modulestoring the marketing data in a database; and (4) a business connectormodule adapted to provide the one or more consumer groups to at leastone marketing content author.

Additional embodiments of the present invention may include methods formanaging web content that include: (a) providing a web contentmanagement application adapted to maintain a global marketing frameworkindicative of a marketing campaign; (b) generating a web marketingcampaign from at least a portion of the global marketing framework; (c)gathering via the web server marketing data from at least one of the webserver associated with the web marketing campaign and consumer devicesaccessing the web marketing campaign, the marketing data includinginformation indicative of interests of consumers; (d) storing themarketing data in a database; (e) receiving data from a third partyapplication via a data exchange adaptor, the data exchange adaptor isadapted to: (1) facilitate a bilateral exchange of data between thethird party application and the web content management application; and(2) provide marketing data to the third party application.

According to some embodiments, the present invention may be directed tonon-transitory computer readable storage mediums having a computerprogram embodied thereon, the computer program executable by a processorin a computing system to perform a method for managing web content forcontent authors. The method may include: (a) providing a web contentmanagement application via a web site, the web content managementapplication coupled to a web server associated with the web site, theweb content management application adapted to maintain a globalmarketing framework indicative of a marketing campaign; (b) generatingthe web marketing campaign from at least a portion of the globalmarketing framework via the web server; (c) gathering via the web servermarketing data from at least one of the web server associated with theweb marketing campaign and consumer devices accessing the web marketingcampaign, the marketing data including information indicative ofinterests of consumers; (d) storing the marketing data in a database;(e) associating consumers together according to at least one commoninterest to create one or more consumer groups; and (f) providing theone or more consumer groups to at least one marketing content author.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is a schematic diagram of an exemplary architecture of a systemfor managing web content that may be utilized to practice aspects of thepresent technology.

FIG. 1B is a partial schematic diagram of the exemplary architecture ofFIG. 1A.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method for managing webcontent.

FIG. 3 is an exemplary user interface in the form of a web page forinteracting with a web content management application.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an exemplary computing system that may beutilized to practice aspects of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

While this invention is susceptible of embodiment in many differentforms, there is shown in the drawings and will herein be described indetail several specific embodiments with the understanding that thepresent disclosure is to be considered as an exemplification of theprinciples of the invention and is not intended to limit the inventionto the embodiments illustrated.

Generally speaking, the systems and methods provided herein may beutilized to generate, manage, and selectively modify web content forglobal marketing campaigns. The systems and method maintain a globalmarketing framework that may be utilized to create individual webmarketing campaigns across a wide variety of communications mediums.Content authors may utilize the global marketing framework in acollaborative manner and seamlessly incorporate content data createdthrough third party applications.

The systems and methods provided herein utilize application data createdin a web content management application that provides extra data storageon an item level allowing a content author to store additional webcontent and external other data (e.g., third party application data)directly into the web content management application. The systems andmethods provide mapping between web content associated with a marketingcampaign and corresponding data in third party systems, such as productinformation management systems.

The systems and methods may utilize simple object access protocol webservices that are adapted to expose web application data and in someembodiments, affect application data associated with web content as anitem transaction. The CME also includes an extensible framework thatallows implementers to add extra data obtained through third partiessources/software, as well as associated third party workflow into theweb content management application. It will be understood that the term“implementer” may include individuals producing computer readableinstructions that may be utilized to modify the appearance orfunctionalities of the web content management application. Thesefunctionalities provide the content authors with one location (the webcontent management application) at which are able to perform actionswith scope over many systems. The combination of these functionalitiesprovides third parties, such as partners, the ability to create portablesolutions to integrate third party data from third party data sources.These portable solutions may allow for customization of the web contentmanagement application across many installations of the web contentmanagement application.

The systems and methods may include a dynamic rendering engine anddynamic rendering engine data format that allows implementers toabstract dynamic functionalities to a predetermined format that isintercepted and rendered by the dynamic rendering engine. Dataabstracted to the predetermined format may be utilized as a portion of acore development implementation before being passed back to therequester. According to some embodiments, the core development mayinclude functionalities adapted to render dynamic links that ensure thata website never has broken links to internal pages associated therewith.

It will be understood that the data included in the web contentgenerated by the web content management application is providedaccording to the predetermined format of the rendering engine, ratherthan from data format utilized by standard web applications such asJavaScripts or .NET. In some embodiments, tag libraries available to therendering engine data format may be added in Java making it possible torender the functionalities of the web application without actuallyrequiring the deployment of the web application.

Referring now to FIG. 1A, illustrating an exemplary system 100 formanaging web content. The system 100 may include a web contentmanagement application, hereinafter referred to as the “application105,” adapted to communicate with a plurality of client devices 110.Each of the client devices 110 may be associated with a user (e.g., acontent author) who provides content data that may be utilized by theapplication 105 to generate a global marketing framework. It will beunderstood that a global marketing framework may include detailedinformation indicative of a marketing campaign. Portions of the globalmarketing framework may be utilized to generate customized marketingcampaigns that may be deployed across a wide range of communicationchannels (e.g., web, radio, television, print, and so forth). In someinstances, the marketing campaign may include information, such as text,audio, video, forms, templates, user interfaces, and any additionalinformation that may be utilized in the creation of marketing campaigns.Non-limiting examples of marketing campaigns include, banners, links,web pages, and so forth, both interactive and non-interactive.

It is noteworthy that the application 105 may be adapted to generate webmarketing campaigns utilizing these customizable and multi-channelfunctionalities. This may be accomplished, for example, by convertingdata received by the content authors into widely implemented contentstructural formats. Such formats may include, for example, an extensiblemarkup language format (XML) that is utilized by the application 105.

The application 105 may be implemented in the context of a web site 300(FIG. 3 ) that is hosted on a web server 115. It will be understood thatthe web server 115 may include a single web server or a plurality of webservers networked or associated together in a cloud configuration (notshown). As will be discussed in greater detail below, the system 100 mayinclude a presentation server 155 adapted to display the web marketingcampaign generated by the application 105. A more detailed descriptionof the basic functionalities of client devices 110, web server 115, andpresentation server 155 are provided with reference to computing system400 illustrated in FIG. 4 .

In some embodiments, the web server 115 may be operatively associatedwith one or more databases 120. The one or more databases 120 may beconfigured as Object Linking and Embedding, Database (OLEDB) or OpenDatabase Connectivity (ODBC) databases. In some embodiments, the content(e.g., global marketing framework, web marketing campaign, etc.)generated by the application 105 may be stored in the one or moredatabases 120. It will be understood that the client devices 110 may beoperatively coupled to the application 105 via a network 125, which insome embodiments includes the Internet.

The content authors may interact with the application 105 via graphicaluser interfaces (GUIs) 130 generated by the application 105. Accordingto some embodiments, the content authors may interact with the GUIs 130via a web browser resident on the client device 110. The graphical userinterfaces 130 may provide visual representations of the web marketingcampaigns generated from the global marketing framework. An exemplarygraphical user interface 300 is shown with reference to FIG. 3 .

In additional embodiments, content authors may interact with theapplication 105 via a word processor connector 135 that provides asimplified mechanism for content authors to upload textual informationthat may be included in the global marketing framework or a webmarketing campaign. For example, the word processor connector 135 may beutilized by content authors who need to create simple text for use in aweb marketing campaign via any commonly utilized word processing tool.Content authors may open, edit, and create structured (XML) content byuploading a word processing document that is converted by the wordprocessor connector 135 to structured XML content that may be utilizedby the application 105. The XML content may then be saved directly tothe content manager module 150, which is described in greater detailbelow.

Content authors may generate web marketing campaigns from the globalmarketing framework by inheriting portions (or potentially all) of thedata of the global marketing framework. The content authors maycustomize the data for a web marketing campaign based upon a targetedchannel of communication. For example, a content author may modify a webmarketing campaign targeted to a social networking web site differentlyfrom the way the content author modifies the web marketing campaign foruse with an e-commerce web site. It will be understood that inheritingmay include selecting, extracting, gathering, referencing, and the like.

According to other embodiments, rather than requiring the contentauthors to create a plurality of individual web marketing campaigns fromthe global marketing framework, the application 105 may be adapted toautomatically and intelligently generate individual marketing campaignsfrom the global marketing framework. For example, once the globalmarketing framework has been established, the application 105 mayautomatically generate web marketing campaigns in a plurality ofdifferent languages. Because the plurality of web marketing campaignsinherit their data from the global marketing framework, consistency maybe maintained with regard to branding and message content.

Additionally, the application 105 may tailor the content of individualmarketing campaigns based upon the desired audience. For example, theapplication 105 may not only generate an individual marketing campaignfor a particular country based upon language utilized in the country,but may also selectively modify the appearance of the individualmarketing campaign based upon marketing data gathered for the particularcountry. For example, if marketing data suggests that different colorschemes produce more efficient results for different countries, thevarious web marketing campaigns may be created with varying colorschemes to maximize the efficiency of a web marketing campaign.

While it has been contemplated that the application 105 may tailorindividual marketing campaigns for countries, one of ordinary skill inthe art will appreciate that individual marketing campaigns may likewisetailored to other targets such as specific consumers, business entities,and states—just to name a few.

In some embodiments, content authors may create folder structures forstoring marketing campaign data that may be utilized by the application105 via a webDAV connector 140. Content authors may add, edit, delete,and use content that is utilized in the generation of web marketingcampaigns in the same way that they would use the Windows file system.For example, content authors may access folder structures using a webbrowser application or any other suitable desktop application residenton the client device 110.

According to some embodiments, the application 105 may include a contentporter module 145 adapted to facilitate the exchange of data between thedatabase 120 associated with the web server 115 and at least one of theapplication 105 and the client devices 110. In other embodiments, thecontent porter module 145 provides content authors the ability todevelop marketing content and/or web site functionalities apart from thelive version (e.g., the version currently published on the presentationserver 155) of the web site 300. As stated above, an exemplary visualrepresentation of web site 300 is provided in FIG. 3 , and will bedescribed in greater detail below. The application 105 may then transferthe developed marketing content to the application 105, whichfacilitates the inclusion of the developed content to the live versionof the web site 300.

The content porter module 145 may be adapted to transfer data betweendifferent versions or instances of the application 105 running onmultiple client devices 110 (e.g., collaborative web marketing campaigncreation). The application 105 may be adapted to assemble the portionsof the web marketing campaign created by the various content authorsinto one or more cohesive web marketing campaigns.

Regardless of how the application 105 generates the web marketingcampaign(s) (e.g., automatically, via collaborative effort, etc.), theweb marketing campaigns may be published to a web site associated withthe presentation server 155 via the content distributor module 160. Asthe web marketing campaigns are published on a presentation server 155,the web marketing campaigns may be accessed via consumer devices 165A orconsumer portals 165B via a consumer device 165A. It will be understoodthat the consumer portal 165B may include a web site operated by amarketer or utilized by a marketer to deliver web marketing campaign(e.g., banner advertisement).

It will be understood that consumer devices 165A may include computingsystems of any kind, and may generally be described with reference tocomputing system 400 (FIG. 4 ). It is noteworthy that the presentationserver 155 and the web server 115 hosting the application 105 may becombined together.

The system 100 may include a visitor intelligence module 170 adapted togather, via the presentation server 155, marketing data from theplurality of consumer devices 165A accessing the web marketing campaign.It will be understood that each of the consumer devices 165A may beassociated with an individual consumer (i.e., end user) such that ananalysis data provided by the consumer devices 165A may yieldinformation indicative of the end user (i.e., consumer) associatedtherewith. According to some embodiments, the marketing data may includeinformation indicative of the interests of the consumer.

Additionally, the visitor intelligence module 170 may be adapted toanalyze information received from the consumers accessing a webmarketing campaign via consumer portal 165B.

Generally speaking, the marketing data may include any of a consumername, a consumer identification, an address, a postal code, a telephonenumber, a credit card number, a social networking profile, an Internetprotocol address, a media access control (MAC) address, visitationduration, visitation frequency, and combinations thereof. One ofordinary skill in the art will appreciate that many other types ofinformation indicative of a consumer may likewise be utilized inaccordance with the present invention.

In some embodiments, the visitor intelligence module 170 may be adaptedto gather marketing data by examining at least one of a cookie, a webform associated with the presentation server hosting the web marketingcampaign, a query string embedded in a uniform resource locator (URL)associated with the presentation server hosting the web marketingcampaign, window.name information associated with a web browser session,hyper text transfer protocol authentication information, andcombinations thereof.

The marketing data gathered by the visitor intelligence module 170 maybe stored in a raw format on the database 120 via the content portermodule 145. In addition to creating lists of consumers to whichmarketing campaigns may be directed by utilizing basic raw data such asnames, or addresses, the visitor intelligence module 170 may be adaptedto create lists based up the one or more consumer groups. For example, amarketing content author, such as an individual creating electronic mailmarketing campaigns, may author content that is directed to allconsumers that belong to the consumer group of “baseball.” Therefore,rather than sending electronic mail marketing campaigns to all consumersidentified by the visitor intelligence module 170, directed electronicmail marketing campaigns may be directed to consumers that are known tohave an interest in the content of the electronic mail marketingcampaign, which in this instance may include a sale on baseball relatedsports memorabilia.

The content author creates the electronic mail marketing campaign viathe application 105 and retrieves the particular consumer groups towhich the electronic mail marketing campaign should be directed from theapplication 105. The application 105 then provides the selected consumergroups to the content author via a business connector module 175.

Referring now to FIGS. 1A and 1B collectively, the application 105 mayinclude the business connector module 175 adapted to interface theapplication 105 with one or more third party application(s) 180A by wayof one or more data exchange adapters 185. In addition to data exchangeadapters 185, the business connector module 175 may be adapted tocommunicate directly with third party applications 180A such asJava-based applications.

As stated above, the application 105 may be adapted to utilize a dynamicrendering engine (not shown) and dynamic rendering engine data formatthat allows implementers to abstract dynamic functionalities (from athird party application 180A) to a predetermined format (that isintercepted and rendered by the dynamic rendering engine). Dataabstracted to the predetermined format may be utilized as a portion of acore development implementation before being passed back to therequester.

In some embodiments, the data exchange adapter 185 may be adapted toconvert at least one of the marketing data gathered by the visitorintelligence module 170 and the one or more consumer groups created bythe visitor intelligence module 170, to the data format utilized by thethird party application 180A. For example, the third party application180A may include applications such as a web page design application, agraphics editing program, and the like that may be utilized to createmarketing content that may be incorporated into the web marketingcampaign.

The data exchange adapter 185 may interface with web-service enabledthird party applications 180A utilizing a simple object access protocol(SOAP) interface 190A, an extensible stylesheet language transformations(XSLT) transformer 190B, and mapping logic module 190C.

In other embodiments, the business connector module 175 may utilize anenterprise application integration broker 195 to exchange data with oneor more enterprise third party programs 180B. For example, the broker195 may be adapted to facilitate the exchange of data between anenterprise third party application 180B such as an email serverapplication, and the business connector module 175 by determining a dataformat utilized by the enterprise third party application 180B, which inthis case includes simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP) format. Inpractice, a content author may provide content via an electronic mailmessage. The data exchange adapter 185 receives the message that isconverted by the XSLT transformer 190B to a data format utilized by theapplication 105, i.e., XML format. The mapping logic module 190C may beadapted to index the data format exchange information establishedbetween the SOAP interface 190A and the enterprise third partyapplication 180B.

It will be understood that the business connector module 175 may beadapted to provide at least one of the raw marketing data and the one ormore consumer groups gathered by the visitor intelligence module 170 toone or more of the third party applications 180A or enterprise thirdparty applications 180B. For example, the data exchange adapter 185 mayconvert the marketing data gathered by the visitor intelligence module170 in XML format to a data format that is utilized by a web page designapplication.

With regard to modifying the content of a web marketing campaign basedupon marketing data, the system 100 may include a dynamic broker module155A associated with the presentation server 155. The dynamic brokermodule 155A may be adapted to selectively modify a web marketingcampaign based upon the marketing data received by the visitorintelligence module 170. For example, the dynamic broker module 155A maymodify the web marketing campaign to include different advertisementsdirected to products from a product catalogue of a marketer based uponthe interests of the consumers viewing the web marketing campaign, asdetermined by the visitor intelligence module 170.

In other embodiments directed to consumers who utilize mobile devices,the dynamic broker module 155A may be adapted to determine aconfiguration of each mobile consumer device requesting the webmarketing campaign. The dynamic broker module 155A may determine theconfiguration of a mobile consumer device by evaluating theinternational mobile equipment identifier (IMEI) of the mobile consumerdevice. By analyzing the IMEI, a mobile device operating system versionmay be determined, along with other pertinent information. Utilizing thegathered information, the dynamic broker module 155A may cause theprovision of a version of the web marking campaign (via the presentationserver 155) to the mobile consumer device that may be substantiallycompatible with the mobile device operating system version of thedevice.

In other embodiments, the dynamic broker module 155A may be utilized toperiodically or continually modify the content of a web marketingcampaign based upon an analysis of marketing data. For example,marketing data received from the consumer devices 165A may indicate thata particular web marketing campaign is underperforming (i.e., notgenerating the proper number of click through instances or generatingenough sales). As such, the interests of the consumers accessing the webmarketing content may indicate that a change in the products included inthe web marketing campaign may more closely coincide with the interestsof the consumer groups. Therefore, the application 105 may modify thecontent of the web marketing campaign to substantially correspond to theinterests of the consumers. Moreover, this type of dynamic modificationmay take place on a granular level (i.e., at the individual consumerlevel).

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary flow chart of a method 200 for managingweb content. The method 200 may include the step 205 of providing a webcontent management application via a web site. The web contentmanagement application may be coupled to a web server associated withthe web site. Moreover, the web content management application may beadapted to maintain a global marketing framework indicative of amarketing campaign.

Next, the method 200 may include the step 210 of generating a webmarketing campaign from at least a portion of the global marketingframework, via the web server, which in some embodiments includes apresentation server. In an additional embodiment, the method 200 mayinclude the step 215 of gathering, via the web server (or thepresentation server), marketing data from a plurality of consumerdevices accessing the web marketing campaign. It will be understood thateach of the consumer devices may be associated with a consumer and thatthe marketing data may include information indicative of interests ofthe consumer associated with the consumer device.

Additionally, the method 200 includes the step 220 of storing themarketing data in a database and a step 225 of associating consumerstogether according to at least one common interest to create one or moreconsumer groups. The method 200 may also include the step 230 ofproviding the one or more consumer groups to at least one marketingcontent author such that the web marketing campaign delivered to theconsumer groups may be tailored to the interests of the consumer.

The method 200 may include an additional step 235 of interfacing theapplication with one or more third party applications via the use of adata exchange adapter or an EAI broker. The method 200 may also includea step 240 of selecting an appropriate version of the web marketingcampaign to deliver to a mobile consumer device by evaluating the mobiledevice information indicative of the mobile consumer device andselecting a version of the web marketing campaign that corresponds tothe mobile consumer device. Additionally, the method 200 may include thestep 245 of selectively modifying the web marketing campaign based uponthe marketing data to increase the efficiency of the marketing campaign.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary user interface 300 that allows contentauthors to interact with the application 105. Generally speaking, theuser interface 300 generated by the application 105 may provide contentauthors with a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) representation ofthe web marketing campaign. That is, the user interface 300 generated bythe application 105 may include a representation of the web marketingcampaign that is identical, nearly identical, or to the actual visualappearance of the web marketing campaign that is published by on thepresentation server 155. As additional content is added to the webmarketing campaign, the user interface is updated to include the newcontent.

The user interface 300 may include a plurality of block icons 305A-Dindicative of individual web marketing campaigns. More particularly,each of the block icons 305A-D may be indicative of a web marketingcampaign for a particular communication channel. Block icon 305Aincludes a web marketing campaign that may be directed to a searchengine. Block icon 305B includes a web marketing campaign that may bedirected to a first social networking application and block icon 305C toa second social networking application. Additionally, block icon 305Dmay be directed to a banner advertisement that may be directed to anysuitable web site.

The user interface 300 includes visual representations of therelationships of the individual web marketing campaigns relative to oneanother via directional arrows 310. For example, the directional arrows310 linking each of the block icons 305A-D may indicate that each of theweb marketing campaigns associated with the block icons 305A-D directconsumers to the landing page (represented visually by block icon 305E)of a marketer's website.

As stated previously, the web content management system described abovealso includes an extensible framework that allows implementers to addextra data obtained through third parties sources/software, as well asassociated third party workflow into the web content managementapplication. It will be understood that the term “implementer” mayinclude individuals producing computer readable instructions that may beutilized to modify the appearance or functionalities of the web contentmanagement application.

It is noteworthy that some embodiments according to the presenttechnology support a variety of web browsers. Examples include but arenot limited to Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera,various mobile browsers, and so forth. It may be desirable, in certaininstances, for a user to be able to extend the graphical user interface(GUI). Advantageously, the system is adapted to allow users (or contentauthors) to customize the GUI to include features that they commonlyuse, rather than loading a plurality of features that the user may notneed.

It various embodiments, the user possesses the ability specify how thedesired add-in features are included in the GUI. For example, a featuresuch as “rename” may be included in a right-click mouse menu (forexample), in an icon included in a toolbar, and so forth. The system mayalso allow users to change the visual appearance of their GUI, forexample, by adding or subtracting columns that provide various types ofinformation. The flexible architecture used for the GUI allows forenhanced extensibility so that users may extend functionality andcustomizations.

In some embodiments, a centralized model repository is implemented. Theinclusion of this centralized model repository may allow for theeditors, and the different screens of the editors, to communicate withmain model items hosted in a single place. In other words, it isenvisioned that when there is a change in a single location in the modelrepository, the various editors and views may be notified about thechange. In exemplary embodiments, when an editor makes a change, theeditor makes the change in the centralized model repository. Further,the system may support object models with inheritance of the extendedJava script language, thus allowing for the building of object modelswith inheritance. The inclusion of a configuration framework allows theplug in of new models, editors, and so forth.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary computing system 400 that may be used toimplement an embodiment of the present invention. The computing system400 of FIG. 4 includes one or more processors 410 and main memory 420.Main memory 420 stores, in part, instructions and data for execution byprocessor 410. Main memory 420 can store the executable code when thesystem 400 is in operation. The system 400 of FIG. 4 may further includea mass storage device 430, portable storage medium drive(s) 440, outputdevices 450, user input devices 460, a graphics display 440, and otherperipheral devices 480.

The components shown in FIG. 4 are depicted as being connected via asingle bus 490. The components may be connected through one or more datatransport means. Processor unit 410 and main memory 420 may be connectedvia a local microprocessor bus, and the mass storage device 430,peripheral device(s) 480, portable storage device 440, and displaysystem 470 may be connected via one or more input/output (I/O) buses.

Mass storage device 430, which may be implemented with a magnetic diskdrive or an optical disk drive, is a non-volatile storage device forstoring data and instructions for use by processor unit 410. Massstorage device 430 can store the system software for implementingembodiments of the present invention for purposes of loading thatsoftware into main memory 410.

Portable storage device 440 operates in conjunction with a portablenon-volatile storage medium, such as a floppy disk, compact disk ordigital video disc, to input and output data and code to and from thecomputer system 400 of FIG. 4 . The system software for implementingembodiments of the present invention may be stored on such a portablemedium and input to the computer system 400 via the portable storagedevice 440.

Input devices 460 provide a portion of a user interface. Input devices460 may include an alphanumeric keypad, such as a keyboard, forinputting alphanumeric and other information, or a pointing device, suchas a mouse, a trackball, stylus, or cursor direction keys. Additionally,the system 400 as shown in FIG. 4 includes output devices 450. Suitableoutput devices include speakers, printers, network interfaces, andmonitors.

Display system 470 may include a liquid crystal display (LCD) or othersuitable display device. Display system 470 receives textual andgraphical information, and processes the information for output to thedisplay device.

Peripherals 480 may include any type of computer support device to addadditional functionality to the computer system. Peripheral device(s)480 may include a modem or a router.

The components contained in the computer system 400 of FIG. 4 are thosetypically found in computer systems that may be suitable for use withembodiments of the present invention and are intended to represent abroad category of such computer components that are well known in theart. Thus, the computer system 400 of FIG. 4 can be a personal computer,hand held computing system, telephone, mobile computing system,workstation, server, minicomputer, mainframe computer, or any othercomputing system. The computer can also include different busconfigurations, networked platforms, multi-processor platforms, etc.Various operating systems can be used including UNIX, Linux, Windows,Mac OS, Palm OS, and other suitable operating systems.

The computer system 400 may also include a mobile computing device thatmay have a configuration that includes at least one of a mobileoperating system having an operating system version number.Additionally, mobile device may be identified by way of an internationalmobile equipment identifier (IMEI).

Some of the above-described functions may be composed of instructionsthat are stored on storage media (e.g., computer-readable medium). Theinstructions may be retrieved and executed by the processor. Someexamples of storage media are memory devices, tapes, disks, and thelike. The instructions are operational when executed by the processor todirect the processor to operate in accord with the invention. Thoseskilled in the art are familiar with instructions, processor(s), andstorage media.

It is noteworthy that any hardware platform suitable for performing theprocessing described herein is suitable for use with the invention. Theterms “computer-readable storage medium” and “computer-readable storagemedia” as used herein refer to any medium or media that participate inproviding instructions to a central processing unit (CPU) for execution.Such media can take many forms, including, but not limited to,non-volatile media, volatile media and transmission media. Non-volatilemedia include, for example, optical or magnetic disks, such as a fixeddisk. Volatile media include dynamic memory, such as system RAM.Transmission media include coaxial cables, copper wire and fiber optics,among others, including the wires that comprise one embodiment of a bus.Transmission media can also take the form of acoustic or light waves,such as those generated during radio frequency (RF) and infrared (IR)data communications. Common forms of computer-readable media include,for example, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, a hard disk, magnetic tape,any other magnetic medium, a CD-ROM disk, digital video disk (DVD), anyother optical medium, any other physical medium with patterns of marksor holes, a RAM, a PROM, an EPROM, an EEPROM, a FLASHEPROM, any othermemory chip or data exchange adapter, a carrier wave, or any othermedium from which a computer can read.

Various forms of computer-readable media may be involved in carrying oneor more sequences of one or more instructions to a CPU for execution. Abus carries the data to system RAM, from which a CPU retrieves andexecutes the instructions. The instructions received by system RAM canoptionally be stored on a fixed disk either before or after execution bya CPU.

The above description is illustrative and not restrictive. Manyvariations of the invention will become apparent to those of skill inthe art upon review of this disclosure. The scope of the inventionshould, therefore, be determined not with reference to the abovedescription, but instead should be determined with reference to theappended claims along with their full scope of equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for managing web content, comprising:providing a web content management application via a web site, the webcontent management application coupled to a web server associated withthe web site, the web content management application adapted to maintaina global marketing framework indicative of a marketing campaign;generating a web marketing campaign from at least a portion of theglobal marketing framework, wherein the data included in the web contentis generated by the web content management application according to apredetermined format of rendering engines, rather than from data formatsutilized by standard web applications; gathering, via the web server,marketing data from at least one of the web server associated with theweb marketing campaign and consumer devices accessing the web marketingcampaign, the marketing data including information indicative ofinterests of consumers; storing the marketing data in a database; andreceiving data from a third party application via a data exchangeadapter, the data exchange adapter adapted to: facilitate a bilateralexchange of data between the third party application and the web contentmanagement application; provide marketing data to the third partyapplication; and generate a customization of the web marketing campaignby the third party application.
 2. The method according to claim 1,wherein the marketing data includes at least one of a consumer name, aconsumer identification, an address, a postal code, a telephone number,a credit card number, a social networking profile, an Internet protocoladdress, a media access control (MAC) address, visitation duration,visitation frequency, and combinations thereof.
 3. The method accordingto claim 1, wherein the marketing data is gathered from at least one ofa cookie, a web form associated with the web marketing campaign, a querystring embedded in a uniform resource locator (URL) associated with theweb marketing campaign, window.name information associated with a webbrowser session, hyper text transfer protocol authenticationinformation, and combinations thereof.
 4. The method according to claim1, further comprising integrating the web content management applicationwith the third party application by way of the data exchange adapter. 5.The method according to claim 4, wherein the consumer devices areprovided to the third party application via the data exchange adapter.6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the data exchange adapter isadapted to at least one of: convert data received from the third partyapplication to an extensible markup language data format utilized by theweb content management application; and provide the marketing data tothe third party application by converting the marketing data from theextensible markup language data format utilized by the web contentmanagement application to the data format utilized by the third partyapplication.
 7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the dataexchange adapter is adapted to utilize simple object access protocol. 8.The method according to claim 6, further comprising integrating the webcontent management application with the third party application by wayof an enterprise application integration broker.
 9. The method accordingto claim 1, wherein generating further includes: determining aconfiguration of a mobile consumer device requesting the web marketingcampaign; and providing a compatible version of the web marketingcampaign to the mobile consumer device.
 10. A system for managing webcontent, comprising: a web server associated with a web site; the website having a web content management application associated therewith,the web content management application coupled to the web serverassociated with the web site, the web content management applicationincluding computer-readable instructions comprising: a content managermodule adapted to: maintain a global marketing framework indicative of amarketing campaign; and generate a web marketing campaign from at leasta portion of the global marketing framework; a visitor intelligencemodule adapted to: gather, via the web server, marketing data from atleast one of the web server associated with the web marketing campaignand consumer devices accessing the web marketing campaign, the marketingdata including information indicative of interests of consumers; andgroup consumers together according to at least one common interest tocreate one or more consumer groups; wherein the web content managementapplication utilizes a dynamic rendering engine and a dynamic renderingengine data format that converts the marketing data gathered by thevisitor intelligence module to a data format utilized by one or morethird-party applications; a content porter module for storing themarketing data in a database; and a business connector module fromreceiving data from a third party application, via a data exchangeadapter adapted to: facilitate a bilateral exchange of data between thethird party application and the web content management application;provide marketing data to the third party application; and generate acustomization of the web marketing campaign by the third partyapplication.
 11. The system according to claim 10, wherein the marketingdata includes at least one of a consumer name, a consumeridentification, an address, a postal code, a telephone number, a creditcard number, a social networking profile, a Internet protocol address, amedia access control (MAC) address, visitation duration, visitationfrequency, and combinations thereof.
 12. The system according to claim10, wherein the visitor intelligence module is adapted to gather themarketing data from at least one of a cookie, a web form associated withthe presentation server hosting the web marketing campaign, a querystring embedded in a uniform resource locator (URL) associated with thepresentation server hosting the web marketing campaign, window.nameinformation associated with a web browser session, hyper text transferprotocol authentication information, and combinations thereof.
 13. Thesystem according to claim 10, wherein the business connector module isfurther adapted to interface the web content management application withthe third party application by way of the data exchange adapter.
 14. Thesystem according to claim 13, wherein the data exchange adapter isadapted to utilize simple object access protocol.
 15. The systemaccording to claim 10, wherein the business connector module is furtheradapted to interface the web content management application with thethird party application by way of an enterprise application integrationbroker.
 16. The system according to claim 13, wherein the data exchangeadapter facilitates the exchange of data between the third partyapplication and the web content management application by: determining adata format utilized by the third party application; and converting datareceived from the third party application to a data format utilized bythe web content management application.
 17. The system according toclaim 16, wherein the data exchange adapter is further adapted toconvert at least one of the marketing data gathered by the visitorintelligence module and the one or more consumer groups created by thevisitor intelligence module to the data format utilized by the webcontent management application.
 18. The system according to claim 16,wherein the data format utilized by the web content managementapplication includes extensible markup language format.
 19. The systemaccording to claim 10, further comprising a dynamic broker moduleadapted to selectively modify the web marketing campaign based upon themarketing data received by the visitor intelligence module before thestep of generating.
 20. The system according to claim 19, furthercomprising the dynamic broker module adapted to: determine aconfiguration of a mobile consumer device requesting the web marketingcampaign; and provide a compatible version of the web marketing campaignto the mobile consumer device.
 21. The system according to claim 20,wherein the configuration of the mobile consumer device includes atleast one of an operating system version and an international mobileequipment identifier (IMEI).
 22. A non-transitory computer readablestorage medium having a computer program embodied thereon, the computerprogram executable by a processor in a computing system to perform amethod for managing web content for content authors, the methodcomprising: providing a web content management application via a website, the web content management application coupled to a web serverassociated with the web site, the web content management applicationadapted to maintain a global marketing framework indicative of amarketing campaign; generating a web marketing campaign from at least aportion of the global marketing framework, wherein the data included inthe web content is generated by the web content management applicationaccording to a predetermined format of rendering engines, rather thanfrom data formats utilized by standard web applications; gathering, viathe web server, marketing data from at least one of the web serverassociated with the web marketing campaign and consumer devicesaccessing the web marketing campaign, the marketing data includinginformation indicative of interests of consumers; storing the marketingdata in a database; and receiving data from a third party applicationvia a data exchange adapter, the data exchange adapter adapted to:facilitate a bilateral exchange of data between the third partyapplication and the web content management application; providemarketing data to the third party application; and generate acustomization of the web marketing campaign by the third partyapplication.
 23. The method of claim 1, further comprising renderingdynamic links to ensure that the web site has no broken links tointernal pages associated therewith.